Here We Go, The Left Now Calling 401k Plans ‘Subsidies’

The call by progressives to end 401K plans is growing. Now they’re trying a different tack – these plans that workers contribute to out of their paychecks with some matching funds by employers are being called “subsidies” by the left because the funds aren’t taxed until retirement. The 401K is one of the main vehicles middle class Americans use to save for retirement. Now you middle class, hard working Americans are in the cross-hairs of the left, under the guise of social justice or something.

Maybe we don’t feel like paying for pensions for millionaires. Get in on the class war, Republicans. The governing class isn’t paying their fair share is what’s happening here. The governing class is getting away with blaming the working class. Anyway, there’s just a number of different ways that the Republicans can go here, and I’m just trying to present some options.

Here’s the story. Investor’s Business Daily: “Does Government Want To Drain Americans’ 401(k) Plan?” I mentioned this in the first hour. “As Washington debates what to do about the fiscal cliff that it foolishly created –” and that’s true. This fiscal cliff, our beloved elected officials put this deal together the last time they came up with a way to raise the debt limit. And they came up with this cliff idea, the details of which are supposed to be so scary, so horrendous, so horrible, nobody would ever want any of it to happen. Right. Uh-huh. The only people I see being told to moderate anything of theirs in it are the Republicans.

“As Washington debates what to do about the fiscal cliff that it foolishly created, many potential sources of new revenue will be thrown on the table. One of them is likely to be 401(k) plans. Retirement is an American’s reasonable expectation. We put money into investment plans so that our work today funds our hard-earned leisure of tomorrow. But many in Washington see our investment accounts not as the expressions of well-planned, disciplined decisions but as untapped reservoirs of wealth they can drain to fix the problems that they caused.”

And it won’t stop with 401(k)s. Then they’re figure out a way to get into your pension plan. A lot of cash there, folks. Despite all the unfunded pensions, those are largely public sector pensions, government. Private sector pensions, not unfunded. People own them. Large reservoir of cash there. In fact, I could take you back to the early nineties, first public official I ever heard target private sector pensions none other than — dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut — the Reverend Jackson.

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By the way, TIME Magazine headline. Snerdley listen to this. Man, when I’m prescient, I am prescient. I did not know this. Six hours ago, TIME Magazine headline: “Fiscal Cliff: Why Congress Might Have to Mess with the 401(k).” Now, I want to take you back. It was October 28th of 2008. It was before the 2008 election on this program. It was an economist from the New School, Teresa Ghilarducci, who first suggested to Congress the idea going after 401(k)s.

Notice both TIME Magazine and The Atlantic are calling the 401(k) tax deduction now a subsidy. It’s a government subsidy. That’s important because that means it’s the government’s money. You didn’t earn it, the government allowed you to have it, and calling it a “subsidy” is a dog whistle term for people. “Why are we subsidizing the rich?” is the shout from middle America and central California. “Why are we subsidizing the rich, Mabel?” So a tax deduction is now a subsidy. (Read More)

The progressive leftists have different ideas floating around out there about what to do with our savings. The main message here is that anyone who worked and saved for what they have didn’t earn it. Your earnings, in their minds, belong to someone else. You may not be rich by anyone’s standards, but if you worked and saved for your whole life, in their minds you’re fair game, because there’s someone out there who didn’t work and save. And now somehow that’s your problem. This is the Obama world. Maybe you worked and saved for your entire life as a middle class American. If the money you saved pushes you into the “rich” category by their standards you now must be punished.

Senator Tom Harkin lead the democrats in 2010 to seize 401Ks and IRAs. Federal Judge John Roll in the Arizona USDC issued a preliminary ruling against Barry using the FDR E.O. 6102 to confiscate personal savings and retirement accounts bypassing existing laws and the Bush E.O. that limited seizure of private property by the government. Coincidentally, Judge Roll was assassinated by Jared Loughner 1-8-2011, three days after the ruling. His protection had been taken away also. Never fear, we got another E.O. 3-16-2012, National Defense Resources Preparedness, which allows the government to confiscate private property without due process. So if the lunatic left press is putting out propaganda, it’s in the works.

Possibly more vulnerable would be the better alternative to the standard 401(k) and IRA, the Roth versions; the Roth IRA and 401(k) are not tax deductible when you make the contributions, but the gains are tax free upon qualified withdrawal. There is nothing which would prevent the law from being changed to subject the gain to capital gains tax.